With these words, in a very simple and unique manner, I would like to acknowledge and honor all those who
played a part in this story. We are partners in a remarkable journey, thus we are one. And in this melody, this book
was created and built by hundreds of hands, anonymous inheritors of beliefs and verities dictated under the torrid
light of the backland to this humble being, who had the privilege of living it.

Our empathy for São Francisco River and admiration for the
work of the photographer Adriano Gambarini, have given shape
and life to this unedited work, which includes pictures captured in
the course of more than 20 years of travels throughout the Lower,
Middle, and Upper São Francisco.
Since the beginning, we sought ways to show the reader the
intimacy existing between the people of the region and the river. “The
São Francisco River by land and water” was the original title. A
formal title, which did not match the message we wanted to pass on.
We found Old Chico, the River, a simple, straightforward name that
portrays the intimacy existing between the river and the people who
know it.

The legend has it that once upon a time a prophet
arose. A man embodying the spirit of a saint roared through
the four corners announcing that the veins of the rustic people
would overrun and turn the arid lands of the backland into an
ocean. It is also told in a whisper that there was a one-eyed
man who went thru his life hiding at its banks, challenging
oppressors, and taking the law into his own hands on behalf
of the oppressed.

The relevance of São Francisco River is unquestionable.
One of the most important water courses of Brazil and Latin
America. It is source of life, survival, wealth, and culture. Its
heart is its soil, climate, fauna, flora; its soul manifests through
its riverine people’s custom, culture, and art. A river that dies
and is reborn during its long course also provides the energy that
takes progress to the northeast and other regions of the country.
For being the womb of the electricity generated by the five power
plants of Companhia Hidro Elétrica do São Francisco (Chesf),
the river must be preserved physically and spiritually.

A Chesf acredita e investe em projetos como o livro

Chesf believes and invests in projects like the book Old

“Velho Chico, o Rio”, um levantamento fotográfico desde a

Chico, a survey from the river’s headspring to its mouth. The

nascente até sua desembocadura. A proposta é registrar toda

intention is to record all that socioeconomic, environmental,

essa riqueza socioeconômica, ambiental e cultural. O apoio da

and cultural wealth. The support of the Company meets this

Empresa vem objetivar esse desejo, possibilitando uma obra que

wish, making possible a work that translates into discovery,

traduz descoberta, conservação e propagação de uma das mais

preservation, and propagation of one of most precious

preciosas manifestações do Brasil, especialmente do Nordeste.

manifestations of Brazil, and especially of the Northeast.

cênicas, artes plásticas e patrimônio imaterial.

The Company is among those that have stimulated the
culture of the northeastern people. Nearly half of the R$ 20
million invested in sponsorship is resulted from tax deduction
of up to 100% through federal and state laws. Since 2009, the
Company has joined the Programa Cultural das Empresas
Eletrobras (Cultural Programme of Eletrobras Companies),
which publishes edictal to select projects in the fields of scenic
and plastic arts, and immaterial patrimony.

expanse of meadows and to the left the mountain; from their
top four waterfalls gushed.” When the glaring sights, of
what is now considered one of the most important regions in
Brazil, charmed Saint Hilaire almost two centuries ago, he